


i can’t be in love with you (‘cause you’re a boy) extras

by clouds1132



Series: i can’t be in love with you (‘cause you’re a boy) [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No One Direction, Angst, Best Friends, Boyfriends, Boys In Love, Childhood Friends, Coming Out, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Gay Male Character, Homophobia, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, No Smut, One Shot, Pansexual Character, Religion, Religious Conflict, Romance, Secret Relationship, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:29:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28149885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clouds1132/pseuds/clouds1132
Summary: one shots of events that take place after ‘i can’t be in love with you (‘cause you’re a boy).would be helpful to read the first book beforehand just for context.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Series: i can’t be in love with you (‘cause you’re a boy) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062167
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	i can’t be in love with you (‘cause you’re a boy) extras

**Author's Note:**

> hi i’m back.
> 
> a few things:
> 
> \- this book will be a collection of events that take place after the first book and they will be in NO PARTICULAR ORDER. i just decided to post this one first because it happened, like, yesterday, it’s fresh in my memory and i’m really happy about it.
> 
> \- these one-shots will probably be more factual than the first book, except for all the relationship stuff (because i’m single as fuck).
> 
> \- no family members that i write about are connected to the members of one direction’s families in real life. they are based on mine and my friends’.
> 
> \- warnings: boy x boy, swearing

_ December 2020 _

It’s 12:17 am when Harry’s name flashes on Louis’ phone screen, causing him to become temporarily distracted from the paragraph he had been reading about the hypothalamus. His emotions momentarily debate over whether he should feel annoyed at Harry for disrupting his streak of intense focus, confused as to why Harry’s calling at this hour, or excited about Harry calling. But as he picks up his phone, he decides on the third option because he’s focusing on the positives in life.

“Guess what,” Harry immediately says before Louis can even sneak in a ‘hi, babe’.

Louis spins his highlighter on the table and hums, “Did you finally get a buzz cut?”

“No,” Harry scoffs. “Wait, what do you mean by  _ finally _ ?”

“I dunno,” Louis shrugs, even though he knows Harry can’t see him. “You’re pretty spontaneous sometimes.”

“Okay, good to know but guess what Nick told me?” the curly-haired boy rushed out, speaking the fastest that Louis thinks he’s ever heard him speak.

“Uh… his horse won the-”

“Why are you one of those people who actually try to guess?” Louis hears Harry mumble under his breath. 

“Well, sorry, babe,” Louis giggles. “Now what did Nick tell you?”

“You won’t believe it. He told me that one of his family friends came out to him and get this,” Harry pauses for dramatic effect and already, Louis can feel goosebumps rising on his skin. “He was  _ fine _ with it.”

“Wait,  _ what _ ?!” Louis nearly screeches into his phone, but he doesn’t because his sisters are asleep and he doesn’t want to wake them up. “What the fuck are you  _ on _ ?!”

“Trust me, I thought I didn’t hear him right too,” Harry says sounding just as flabbergasted as Louis feels. “Gosh, I nearly fainted.”

Louis raises a hand to his forehead and runs his fingers through his hair in disbelief. Completely pushing out all thoughts about studying out of his preoccupied brain, he stands up from his chair and flops onto his bed. Both of them stay silent for a few seconds as Louis tries to comprehend Harry’s words.

Eventually, he speaks, albeit slowly and carefully, “Are you sure this isn’t an April Fools’ joke or something? Because I hate to break it to you but it’s actually  _ December _ .”

“I swear, I’m not,” Harry tells him. “I’ll even tell you what he said verbatim - ‘You know, today, my friend, Michael, came out to me as bisexual which was pretty cool’.”

There is another stunned silence that follows and it’s as if a light has suddenly turned on in Louis’ brain when he suddenly feels a rush of hope through his veins.

“Haz, are you going to come out to him?” he asks tenaciously.

He hears Harry sigh on the other end of the line. “I kinda want to… but I’m nervous.”

“If you do it, I will,” Louis replies, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he can even process them in his mind. “I mean, maybe, but I’m also nervous.”

“I’ll do it,” Harry quickly, his voice more determined than Louis has ever heard before. He sounds even more determined than Lottie when she promises that she’ll somehow figure out who Louis’ crush is.

“Wait, really?” the blue-eyed boy inquires, his eyebrows raising significantly. “For real?”

“Yeah,” Harry responds, his determined tone failing to falter.

“When?” Louis asks because he really wants Harry to do it as fast as possible but at the same time, who the fuck is even awake at this hour?

“Now.”

  
  
  


Harry only takes five minutes to call back and during that time, Louis has experienced multiple shivers running up and down his spine, as well as his hands becoming so jittery that he can’t highlight straight anymore. But anyway, since when has he been able to do anything remotely straight?

“How did he react?” Louis asks immediately when he picks up the phone.

He hears a happy sigh come from Harry’s end, giving him a burst of hope. “He was shocked but he said it was cool.”

Louis heaves a sigh of relief, having never been more grateful for his boyfriend coming out of that unscathed. “I-I don’t know what to say ‘cause I’m still so surprised but I’m so,  _ so _ proud of you.”

“Thanks, Lou,” his boyfriend replies and Louis can hear the smile in his voice. “Are  _ you _ going to?”

Louis pauses for a second because he’s indecisive and he can’t hasn’t made his decision yet. “I’m not sure… I  _ really _ want to but I’m scared…”

“Only do it when you feel ready,” Harry tells him.

Louis doesn’t even know how it happens but all of a sudden, he feels motivated to do it - to come out to the one person that he believed for sure would be homophobic forever.

“I’ll do it,” he says confidently. “Wait, how did you tell him because I’m just going to copy and paste.”

He’s lazy. So what?

Harry chuckles. “I told him that I’m a criminal in seventy countries and in some of them, I would receive the death penalty.”

“Did you tell him about, um,  _ us _ ?”

Harry pauses. “No, because I forgot to ask you if I could. You can if you want.”

Louis doesn’t reply, what-ifs racing through his head and spiralling into unnecessary doubts that he wishes he could banish.

“H, I’m scared…” he says, his voice going quiet.

“Don’t worry,” Harry reassures him. “He was fine with me not being straight so why should it be any different for you… But just tell him when you’re ready, okay? Don’t feel pressured.”

“Yeah, okay,” Louis answers, his voice a bit more breathy than usual. “I’ll do it now.”

“Good luck, I love you,” Harry replies, cheerily enough to compensate for Louis’ lack of excitement.

“Thanks, I love you more.”

Louis hangs up and scrolls down his list of recents until he comes across the one he’s looking for. His finger hovers over Nick’s name momentarily before he takes that leap of faith and presses the screen. As he waits for Nick to pick up, his heart beats so fast and loud that he’s becoming wary of a potential heart attack.

“Yes?” is the first thing Nick says when he picks up.

“Nick, hey…” Louis greets, trailing off awkwardly and hastily clearing his throat.

“Funny you called,” Nick says before Louis has a chance to make things any more uncomfortable. “I was just on the phone with Harry so it’s like you two planned this.”

“Ha, yeah, about that…” Louis responds, taking a deep breath to compose himself. “Um, I guess it’s my turn now - I’m a criminal in seventy countr-“

Nick interrupts loudly and Louis has to wrench his phone away from his ear before his ear drums burst. “You  _ too _ ?!”

He sounds so incredulous that Louis’ strange combination of anxiety and anticipation causes him to force out a laugh. 

“Yeah… I mean, I’m not pan though,” he says.

“Bi?”

“Gay, so exclusively to men,” Louis explains, even though he knows that Nick already knows what  _ gay _ means. Well, you can never be educated enough, can you?

When Nick goes silent, for a split second, Louis panics that he’s said something to upset him but Nick speaks before he can even think to apologise, “Wow. Firstly, that’s so cool and I’m so proud of you, but when and how did you find out?”

Louis replies, “I think I’ve subconsciously known for years now but then I got a crush and yeah…”

Nick responds knowingly. “It was Harry, wasn’t it?”

What the fuck.

Louis may have spluttered a little and his eyes may have bulged out of his head. “W-What the hell, Nicholas?! How did you know?!”

He hears Nick scoffs on the other end and he starts to question his entire existence. Had he really been that obviously? Apparently so.

“I’ve known both of you for almost your entire lives so it was pretty obvious when things… changed. You two would always look at each other with heart eyes or something, I don’t even know. It’s  _ disgusting _ ,” Nick emphasises the last word jokingly. “So you came out to Harry first, I’m guessing.”

Louis purses his lips together. “Yep, who else?”

“Was this before or after the prank we probably shouldn’t have done?”

“Um, it was actually  _ during _ the prank,” Louis answers, continuing quickly just as Nick is about to interject. “Okay listen, listen. You see, my genius plan was to come out to H while simultaneously convincing you that I was straight…”

Louis does not bask in the silence that follows.

“You’re an idiot,” Nick finally says and Louis can practically envision him shaking his head. “Does anyone else know?”

“Yeah, well not my parents… Zayn guessed, and then I told Niall and Liam pretty soon after.”

“Ah, so I was last by far,” Nick says a bit glumly. “And that would be my own fault, I guess.”

Feeling slightly sympathetic for Nick, Louis chooses not to dwell on the fact that Nick had been blatantly outspoken in showcasing his homophobia until just recently.

“So, what changed your mind?” he asks.

Nick sighs. “Well, before, I would hear a bunch of Christians speak negatively of gay people and about how being gay was a sin, so I just believed what they said. And my parents often disliked the gay couples on TV, and I thought it was because they were gay. But  _ then _ , I realised that they actually disliked them because they were genuinely bad people. But as everything surrounding the LGBTQ+ community became bigger, I paid more attention to it and realised that being gay isn’t actually a sin.”

Louis would be lying if he says that he’s not surprised because he still is pretty damn surprised. But apart from feeling shocked at Nick’s sudden change in beliefs, he’s pleased. Maybe a bit of his heart has been stitched back together.

“Wow,” is all he can think to say.

“Yeah. crazy, innit?” Nick says. “I’m ashamed of past me.”

“It was a learning experience,” Louis quickly reassures him. “I’m just glad you changed your mind.”

“Me too,” Nick replies thoughtfully before changing the subject. “Anyway, can we talk about you and Harry?”

Louis is quick to respond. “Absolutely not. I’m going to hang up but thanks for your support; it means the world to me, especially seeing as I’ve grown up in a ninety-nine percent homophobic environment.”

Nick cackles loudly, almost resembling Niall when he laughs normally. “You’ll never hear the end of this but you’re welcome. Thank you for having the courage to tell me, even after what I was like before, ugh.”

Louis laughs. “I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“Goodnight, Lou.”

When he hangs up, Louis hugs his phone to the left side of his chest, a goofy grin forming on his face. He lays back on his bed, his heart nearly bursting from the amount of happiness it’s holding.

Now, he has some hope for the most important people in his life - his family

**Author's Note:**

> how’s that for ✨character development✨ ???
> 
> thank you for reading ! feel free to leave kudos if you liked it and a comment to tell me what you thought !


End file.
